Hello again...

Did'ja miss me? Sure you did. Everyone does :)

And now... my apology for taking so long to update:

I'M SORRY, MY COMPUTER DIED! A LOT! MY INTERNET WAS COMPLETELY BROKEN:(

Ooh, a long chapter, aren't you happy?

I don't really like this chapter that much, but it needs to be here, because well… you'll see.

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Mahiru peeked into Akito's room. Seeing him lying in his bed, she walked in. On closer inspection, he was fast asleep. She dropped her books in the armchair next to his bed, but then put them on the floor as she settled herself into the chair. She picked up her history textbook and began flipping through it, every now and then glancing at the sleeping God.

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Akito woke to an obnoxious pounding in his head. Apparently the pills that came with his food actually did something important. He'd have to remember that. He struggled to open his eyes; they seemed to be very resistant to it. What greeted his vision almost made him believe he was having a nightmare. No, the pain in his head was definitely real. So was the pain in his joints…

The girl was sitting in his room, reading.

Just sitting there.

She looked up and saw him awake, and smiled. "Hello Akito-sama."

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Mahiru looked up to see that Akito had finally woken up. He had looked so sweet while sleeping, kind of angelic. Every time she had looked up, however, she always saw his falling down yukata, almost completely off his upper body, exposing his pale, too-thin shoulders. Every time she saw this, she felt a pang of pity rip through her heart so hard that she felt it in her back. She mused on the wording of this for a while, realizing how utterly ridiculous it would sound if someone had written it, say in a story (hee hee). She kept her smile on her face, even while her mind was racing with 'This is dumb. This is stupid. Why am I doing this? What's wrong with me? He's gonna be mad. This is dumb. This is stupid. Why am I doing this…?' "So, how are you?" 'LAME' mind berated her.

He was still staring at her. Not glaring, just staring. He opened his mouth, but no sound came out. He tried again, this time managing a "Wh… what are you doing here?"

"Well, I live here." Her smile was starting to hurt her face. "Well, not here here, but here in this house."

"I… I meant in my room…" Now he was just full-fledged gawking at her.

"Um, well, I wanted to see you, but you were asleep. So I'm sitting here, in this chair, and reading about the Meiji Revolution, 'Or restoration. New Chapter: The Meiji Program of Economic Development. The Meiji Era leaders sought economic development as a concodiment of strengthening Japan, but circumstances allowed them very little policy choice. The first problem to be solved was financing the national government…'" she cut off, feeling foolish, and looked at him. he was still lying there, staring at her. "So…"

"So."

Coming from him, that sounded like an accusation that she didn't have anything to talk about. "I… was thinking about taking up dance again. If that's alright with you." She added hastily, remembering Hatori's lecture 'Asking Akito's Permission: How it Can Help You."

"Fine." Akito got control of himself, finally narrowing his eyes at the intruder. "Go ahead. Is that it?"

Mahiru looked away, noticing the untouched food tray which was still next to his bed. "Akito-sama, you know, you really should eat."

Akito followed her gaze and wrinkled his nose again as he saw the food. He snapped his head back to Mahiru when he heard her giggle. "What!" he demanded.

"N…nothing." Mahiru tried to keep from giggling again. He looked so… cute when he squinched his nose up like that.

Akito was dissatisfied with the explanation, but he allowed it. She really was intriguing. He shifted a little bit so that he was sitting up a bit more, propped up on pillows. He watched her as she flipped her hair and went back to her textbook, biting her lip. The smell of her shampoo hit him in a small gust of wind. She smelled nice…

Akito closed his eyes, refusing to look at her, the girl who was causing his traitorous thoughts. He closed them and sank back into his pillows, concentrating instead on ignoring the pain.

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Mahiru flipped through her textbook, bored. History really annoyed her. She understood that the whole 'not making the same mistakes' thing, but honestly, only world-conquerors really needed that. Mahiru already knew not to have naval battles in the English Channel, and to not try to attack Russia in winter. If she ever did feel the need to follow in Napoleon's footsteps, she would be set. She closed her textbook with a booming sound, and then looked guiltily at Akito. He was still sleeping. She sighed, afraid she might have woken him up. Hesitantly, she reached her hand out to touch one of his pillows, and then pressed it harder, startled when her entire hand almost sunk in completely. The pillows were soft beyond anything she had ever felt. She looked at Akito's sickly frame, the pillows making kind of a fort around him. Slowly, she took her hand away from the pillow and touched his hand with one finger. It was cold. She looked around, making sure there was no one else around, and then gingerly stuck her small hand into his thin one, lending it her warmth. She massaged it gently with her thumb, wondering at its softness, and jumping a little when his hand tightened slightly around hers.

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Akito awoke to find Mahiru in his room for the second time. She was reading something, a different book than she had been last time. He turned his head away, and then moaned at the pain that slight movement had caused, letting his head fall back into it's former position. She was looking at him again.

"Good…" she checked her watch "Early night…I guess, Akito-sama!"

He had the urge to snort.

"Hey, Akito-sama, guess what I'm going to do."

"Dance. You already told me that."

"Nope. Well, yeah. But something else too. Guess."

He ignored her.

"What?" she mimicked his deeper voice, then answered herself in a normal tone "Well, Akito-sama, I'm going to figure out how to break the curse."

"And what makes you think you're going to be able to do that?" Akito heard himself attacking her. Always, they built up false hope for him. Kana, Tohru… and they never came through. He always thought that one of them just might be able to do it, but it was never the case.

"Because I want to." Suddenly her book went sliding off of her lap, and she leaned down to get it. Akito felt a tugging on his right hand, and then noticed with horror that she had been holding it. He tried to pull it away, but she had him in a steel grip.

"Let go of me." He said tightly though his teeth. She looked up at him.

"Oh, sorry, you're hand was just really cold." She smiled, but didn't let go of his hand.

He hated it when she smiled at him. It made her harder for him to hate her, seeing her as a person. Not a person that he had full control over, as he had grown to used to, but just a random person. He even had control over Honda, but suddenly, with this girl, he was just a man. A man lying on a bed. "Get out." He ordered her.

Suddenly there was a timid knock on the door, and a servant nervously let herself in, bearing dinner. Her face fell a little bit when she saw that Akito hadn't touched his lunch, and replaced the cold tray for the hot one, but transferring the untaken pills to the ones on the dinner tray, creating a veritable pill mountain. "Um… Hatori-san insists that all of these are taken, Sohma-sama. He says it'll be bad for your health if you don't."

"Shut up" he hissed at the woman, who jumped and almost ran.

"B…But Hatori-san says I have to make sure you take them…" her trembling voice cut off at the look Akito was giving her.

"Don't worry, I'll make sure he takes them." Mahiru chimed in, smiling kindly at the poor woman, and then glaring at Akito.

"Th… thank you." The woman gave her a timid smile, and then hurried out the door.

"Akito… you really should take the pills, and eat."

"What did you just call me!" he demanded. Mahiru ignored him and carefully unwound her hand from his, standing up and going to the other side of the bed, where the food lay on a tray on his night-stand. Rice and a nutritious soup. Normal fare for the ill. She sighed, wondering how many times he had had that exact same meal.

"Wha-" Akito was cut off in a fit of coughing. She turned and watched him, and then to the food on the tray.

"You really should eat this." She repeated.

"You should really go die." She expected that kind of a response as a joke from Takara, Rini, or Hisa. Apparently Akito was serious.

She frowned at him "Now that was rude. Especially to someone who's trying to help you."

"I'm sure you are. You'll help me all the way to the grave." Akito let his normal tirade take over, almost with relief.

"You seem to not need any help in that department. I've seen you fighting this illness. You don't want to die. Admit it."

Mahiru had the feeling that if he could, he would have growled at her then.

"So… while wanting to not die, you're just gonna starve yourself, and not take your medicine. That makes sense."

"What the hell are you doing!" Mahiru had picked up the pill dish and the juice, turning to him with a severe look on her face.

"You're going to take these."

"Make me." He challenged, definitely angry now. "Get the hell out."

"Pick one." Mahiru stood over him in a way she hoped was imposing. He glared right back at her, until he broke off to cough. Mahiru waited for him to finish, then began to get worried as he didn't, and instead of stopping, the coughs seem to get more violent. Still lying on his back, the God was spasming, trying desperately to get a lungful of air before it was pushed out again.

Unsure what to do, Mahiru sat carefully on the side of the bed, and tried to prop him up so that he was at least sitting. She couldn't do it with the pillows on his bed, however, and didn't know where the extras were, so instead she slid behind Akito and wrapped an arm around his shoulders, and bringing his arm around hers, propping him up like that. With her other hand, she rubbed his back, trying to comfort him as best as she could. Slowly, the coughs subsided, and left Akito leaning heavily against her, his head hanging, gasping for breath. Mahiru kept rubbing his back, and it seemed to relax him a little bit. She took her arm away from his shoulders, letting him place all his weight on her with his arm, which was still draped around her. She pushed his hair, now slick with sweat, away from his face. She was scared, if not surprised, so see blood slowly dripping from his mouth as he tried to breathe. She reached over to the night table, trying to keep her body in the exact same place, taking a napkin off of the food tray, and tenderly wiped the blood off his face, and then held the napkin under his bottom lip, catching the blood as it trickled out of his mouth.

Slowly, Akito's head came to rest on her chest, coughing fits coming a few more times, though none with the intensity of the first. Through all of them Mahiru kept her hold on him, propping him up and whispering sweet nothings in his ear to comfort him, rubbing his back and kissing his forehead. Hatori came in from a long day of 'treating' Ayame, who was playing sick and refused to let 'his darling Ha'ri ' leave, to find Akito curled up against Mahiru, clinging to the front of her shirt, his head buried in her chest, a few silent tears rolling down his cheeks. Mahiru was desperately trying to get him to drink the juice that had come with his dinner, catching what he couldn't swallow with a now-drenched napkin.

Hatori stopped in his tracks in the doorway. Mahiru heard his gasp and turned, careful not to disturb the God. "Omigosh, Hatori, I'm so happy to see you. He didn't take any of his pills, and we were arguing about it, and he started coughing, and then there was blood, and he hasn't said anything…" Hatori strode quickly to her side and untangled them, laying the nearly unconscious Akito down on his bed, although he didn't seem to be in any hurry to let go of Mahiru.

Mahiru sat in the armchair, silently watching, her homework forgotten, as Hatori checked Akito. "He's burning up…" she heard the doctor mumbled to himself, and looked down to see Akito's face was, in fact, flushed.

"I'm really sorry…" Mahiru hazarded "I didn't know what to do. This always happens! Every single time! Why!" She flopped herself backwards into the chair.

"It's not your fault. This is what happens when he doesn't take his medicine. And for him, a fever is completely normal." Hatori skillfully stuck a needle in the God's wrist, resulting in a small strangled cry which he ignored, but Mahiru almost cried at. "He'll wake up in about an hour. It'll probably be a bad night though. Also, he won't like it that you were here to help him. I, however, am eternally grateful for that." He paused in his work to grin at her "We don't want to let him go just yet."

Mahiru looked at Akito "Yeah. Me neither."

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Yah, a most random chapter, I know. But this is where Mahiru starts falling in love with Akito, so it has to be here. :) Because otherwise my story would be like 'um, hi, cool, yeah, bye.' Which I'm hoping it won't be.

So….

Review now, and don't comment on how slightly bad the chapter was.

Please.

I'll bake you a cake.

And seriously, please review. :)

Did everyone have a fun 6/6/6?

I did :)